After a good run out against Welling United, Welling Town manager Kevin Oakes spoke of his feelings about the game.

He was very thankful to Welling United for agreeing to the game. “We’d like to get some link up going and if me and Brad (United manager Brad Quinton) can work together, that would be fantastic.”

Oakes showed his excitement about the up coming season enthusing “We’ve got the F.A. Cup draw coming up. We’re in the extra preliminary round which is on the first of September.

“It’s a Tuesday after a bank holiday weekend so it’s a long way from ideal for a club like us so we’ve been training now for seven weeks, doing double sessions most weeks and we deliberately arranged the Concord game (which was played three days before) and today’s game to be a real tough test. We knew we’re not going to see as much of the ball as we’d like but that hard work will probably pay off in the long run.

“We’ve got a lot of competition for places.” Oakes continued. “We’ve deliberately gone a little overboard with signings because we’d rather have too many players than not enough.

“I think that the cream is slowly rising to the top and when you play thee tough games you learn an awful lot more than if you’re playing a load of misfits so for us it’s a valuable learning experience to make sure that the boys understand what we expect of them.

“They are hopefully going to improve by playing a game against better players. A bit of disguised fitness and we’re really excited about starting the season. We’re looking strong and when we start playing against teams at our level, in the coming weeks, I think we’ll have a truer picture of where we’re going to be.

Although the Southern Counties East Football League is due to commence on 5th September, Oakes is doubtful. “The league have said that it will not commence until fans are allowed back in so that’s up in the air at the moment and not dictated by football. That’s the plan at the moment.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden